1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus and a liquid providing method.
2. Related Art
JP-A-2004-299292 discloses an initial providing manipulation for providing plural types of liquid, which are in a vapor state at the time of staring an initial use of an apparatus, into a plurality of liquid supply passages. A controller disclosed in JP-A-2004-299292 first allows some of a plurality of valve units to be in an opened state and allows all the remaining valve units to be in a closed state. Next, only the liquid supply passages corresponding to the valve units in the opened state are allowed to be precedingly charged. If the preceding charge is completed, the valve units in the opened state is allowed to be closed, and at least a portion of the remaining valve units in the closed state is allowed to be opened to charge the corresponding liquid supply passages.
In addition, JP-A-2008-126408 discloses a configuration where cap portions (first cap portion and second cap portion) are allowed to contact with a nozzle formation portion and where the cap portions are divided into a plurality of partitioned chambers so as to suction each partitioned chamber with a simple, easy configuration.
In addition, JP-A-2008-132712 discloses a configuration where a switching mechanism for changing a type of liquid is included.
However, in the configuration disclosed in JP-A-2008-132712, in the case of performing the initial providing of two types of ink in the liquid ejecting apparatus having the switching mechanism, an ink irrelevant to the two types of ink may also be unnecessarily discarded.
Therefore, a method of reducing the unnecessarily discharging ink amount by adapting the configuration of JP-A-2004-299292 or JP-A-2008-126408 to the configuration of the JP-A-2008-132712 is considered. However, in the aforementioned configuration disclosed in JP-A-2004-299292, since the valve unit is provided to each column so as to reduce the consumed ink amount at the time of initial providing, the cost is increased by the amount corresponding to this configuration. In addition, the control for driving each valve unit is complicated.
In addition, in the configuration disclosed in JP-A-2008-126408, a first cap portion and a second cap portion are provided, and a valve is provided to a tube communicating with the first cap portion, so that the cost is increased by the amount corresponding to this configuration and so that the control is also complicated.
Herein, the configuration where the initial providing of the ink may be performed in the cap having one suction chamber of which the inner portion is not partitioned is advantageous in terms of cost due to the simple configuration of the cap. However, even in the case of using such a cap, it is preferable to prevent the ink from being uselessly wasted.